Police hire ‘Scambusters’ OAPs to fight elderly fraud

A POLICE force has hired a crack team of “Scambusters” pensioners to help vulnerable OAP fraud victims.

Greater Manchester Police has hired a band of elderly volunteers called the “Senior Scambusters” to provide peer-to-peer support.

The 13 pensioners have been trained to give fraud advice and guidance to frail victims.

Greater Manchester sees over 1,000 reports a month of scams, many aimed at older people.

The team will contact victims and give practical advice to save them from being targeted again.

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said yesterday: “Our new skilled and knowledgeable recruits emphasise how valuable older people are in society.”

Manchester’s Deputy Mayor Bev Hughes said: “More than 1,000 people a month are tricked into money being taken. The Senior Scam Busters will be able to offer invaluable support to older, more vulnerable people.”

Fraudsters homed in on 48,981 older people across the UK during 2017/18, equivalent to almost six reports every hour claims Action Fraud, the fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.

Of these, 1,140 victims were aged over 90 and 13 were aged over 100.

Fraud expert Prof Keith Brown of Bournemouth University said the figures represented as few as five per cent of the true total.

He said: “Over the next few years this will become the next big scandal, like the dawning realisation of the scale of child abuse.”